Hackers Who Stole Information From Law Firms And Made Millions By Insider Trading, Fined $9 Million

Discuss About The Hackers Who Stole Information From Law?

The paper reflects on the case scenario “Hackers who stole information from law firms and made millions by insider trading, fined $9 million” for analyzing the ethical issues that are present within the scenario with the help of doing ethics technique.

 In the case scenario, three Chinese citizens were ordered by the court to pay around $$8.8 million as they were engaged into hacking of two prominent law firms that are based in New York. They generally engaged in hacking quite sensitive data as well as plans for various upcoming corporate acquisitions, mergers as well as for various trading shares that utilizes different non-public inside information (Hackers who stole information from law firms and made millions by insider trading, fined $9 million, 2017).  The three Chinese persons include Hong who was 26 years old, Bo Zheng who was 30 years old and 50 years old hung Chin were fined $8,895,561.12. It is analyzed that they generally earn $3 million with the help of illegal profits through various insider-trading scheme.

The hackers installed different types of malwares on the networks that generally belong to the law firms as well as IT administration accounts, which helps in providing access to each of the email id of the company. The Chinese people stole important as well as sensitive data from email archives. It is identified that both the Hong and Zheng are generally engaged in stealing various emails of attorneys that are mainly involved in various acquisitions as well as mergers due to the potential of huge rewards (Cluley, 2017). They also targeted five other law firms with the help of various hacking gang and therefore managed to repel the attacks. It is claimed by the US securities as well as exchange commission that the hackers mainly spent around $7.5 million for buying shares in Altera, which is one of the well-known semiconductor companies. The main reason behind it is that Hong, Zheng as well as chin knew about the unreleased report, which the company wants to be acquired with the help of the Intel Corporation.

In one of the incident, both Hong and chin purchased shares in BordFree, which is an e-commerce company that is generally accounted for at least 25% of the total trading volume of the company. Both Hong as well as Zheng achieved appropriate amount of profit with the help of the trading shares in InterMune, which is one of the renowned Pharmaceutical Company. As per the report of the BBC news, the three citizens from china were found guilty of numerous serious issues and therefore the three of them can get lengthy imprisonment (Hackers who stole information from law firms and made millions by insider trading, fined $9 million – MCYSECC, 2017).  However, none of the person appeared in the court for contesting the charges. According to the SEC, this type of case that deals with charging hackers due to hacking networks of law firms were brought to the court for the first time. This may be the case but it is not the first time that hacking of information or sensitive data occurs for assisting insider trade.

Ethical Issues Involved

 In the year 2016, the security headline are entire full of stories about the hackers who hacks various data as well as information including financial as well as personal information from various publicly trading organization before they were made public. The collected or gathered information from these organizations are used by the hackers to make huge profits on the stock market (Cluley, 2017).  A 28-year-old man named Vadym Lermolovych who was found guilty, as he was a part of the gang that generally broke computer networks that belong to the likes of PR newswire as well as business wire for passing appropriate information to a group that crooked securities traders. It is analyzed that PR agencies, newswires, accountants as well as Law firms must ensure that they are working hard in order to secure important information as well as data that are related to the corporate clients for avoiding unauthorized access of information.

 It is analyzed that the three citizens of china mainly engaged in hacking sensitive data as well as information of a reputed organization, which creates number of issues not only for the organization but also for its clients. Important information as well as data that are hacked by accessing the email of various departments of the organization is considered as an ethical issue (Chouhan, 2014).  The data are generally hacked for collecting information about various upcoming corporate acquisitions, mergers as well as for various trading shares that utilizes different non-public inside information. Collection of appropriate information about the organization creates number of financial challenges for the company. The citizens or a hacker from china does not only engage in this case but they are found guilty of many hacking cases that occur recently (Hewson, 2016).  Therefore, the court penalized the three people to pay an amount, which is around $8.8 million so that the hackers do not engage in this type of cases. The hackers were found engaged in several other hacking cases and they used the earned profit for buying shares of renowned companies in order to gain profit (Hack, 2015).  The organizations whose corporate related information was accessed faces number of challenges including business detoriation as well as other financial issues. Due to all this, the hackers can get lengthy imprisonment but none of them appeared in the court for contesting the charges.

 This type of ethical issues must be managed properly in order to mitigate the issues appropriately. . It is analyzed that PR agencies, newswires, accountants as well as Law firms must ensure that they are working hard in order to secure important information as well as data that are related to the corporate clients for avoiding unauthorized access of information (Salman, Saad & Ali, 2013). This step can play an important role in minimizing the cases related with hacking as they generally occur as the victims does not keep them prepare for confronting with the issues. The government must also make strict law as well as regulation so that the cases associated with hacking minimize in number (Sharifi et al., 2013). It is analyzed that the hackers are generally penalized to pay $8.8 million so that they does not engage in any further cases that are associated with ethical issue.  It is quite important for the organization to adopt several policies as well as procedures so that hacking of information as well as data is reduced (Lin, Abney & Bekey, 2014).  The organization must also use some tool and techniques that helps in providing appropriate security as well as privacy to various data and information, which are associated with business.

Consequences of the Hacking

The paper reflects on “Hackers who stole information from law firms and made millions by insider trading, fined $9 million” for analyzing the various ethical issues that are associated with the scenario by utilizing doing ethics technique. It is analyzed that Chouhan (2014) doing ethics techniques is defined as a procedure that is utilized for determining the ethical issues in any of the case scenarios.

1. What is going on?

The three citizens of china named Hong, Bo Zheng and hung Chin engaged in hacking sensitive data as well as information of two law firms in order to gather appropriate data as well as knowledge about upcoming corporate acquisitions, mergers as well as for various trading shares that utilizes different non-public inside information. They mainly collected various sensitive data as well as information of the organization due to which the firm faces number of challenges including financial challenges (Hackers who stole information from law firms and made millions by insider trading, fined $9 million, 2017). The citizens not only hacked the data of the law firm for the first time but they also engage in this type of scenarios several time. The hacking is mainly completed  by the with the help of a gang of hackers who generally helps in creating unauthorized access in the organization and steals appropriate information as well as data. Due to this activity, the court charges the three citizens of china with an amount of $8.8 million so that this type of cases may be minimized in number. It is analyzed that as the hackers were involved in other hacking cases, they can get lengthy life imprisonment but none of them were appeared in the court for contesting their charges.

2. What are the facts?

The hacking of law firm that is done with the help of three citizens of china raises number of issues for the organization. The hackers generally installed malwares on the networks of the organization that generally belong to the law firms as well as IT administration accounts (Cluley, 2017).   The installation of malwares on the various network helps in providing appropriate access to the hackers to get proper as well as sensitive information from the email accounts without proper authorization. In this way, the hackers collected information as well as data that are related with various upcoming mergers, trading shares as well as about different upcoming corporate acquisitions (Hackers who stole information from law firms and made millions by insider trading, fined $9 million – MCYSECC, 2017). This creates number of issues for the organization as they lose their financial stability as well as position in the target market. However, the hackers utilize the profit and purchased shares of renowned companies in order to gain much. Due to this, the hackers were penalized to pay $8.8 million to the government, as they were found guilty of the act.

3. What are the issues?

Doing Ethics Technique

The three persons from china hacked the law firms by installing malwares within the network of the organization, which led them to achieve sensitive information as well as data from about various types of plans of the organization (Cluley, 2017). The hacking that occurs in the law firms creates number of issues for the organization. The organization loses its financial stability as well as position in the target market. The financial lose that arises in the organization is quite high and as a result the business of the organization diminishes. The information related with the corporate also is hacked due to which the third party or the employees that are associated with the organization also suffered (Brems & Lavrysen, 2015).  Hacking of personal information of the employees led to number of issues including loss of personal information including bank details due to which the employees of the organization can also be targeted.  The third parties associated with firm also suffer due to the scenario.

4. Who is affected?

The three citizens of china became successful in hacking the sensitive information as well as data of the law firm by installing malwares in the network of the organization. This creates problems for both the organization as well as victims (Wache et al., 2015). The business organization faces problems as all this important information as well as data are accessed by the hackers and due to which the firm losses its financial stability as well as position in the target market. All the plans that are associated with upcoming corporate acquisitions, mergers as well as for various trading shares were highlighted due to which the organization became unsuccessful in achieving them (Cluley, 2017). The hackers are also affected due to the scenario. This is because they are found guilty by the government and as a result, the government asked them to pay an amount that is around $8.8 million.

5. What are the ethical issues and implications?

 The law firm was hacked by some hackers from china by installing malwares on the networks of the organization that generally belong to the law firms as well as IT administration accounts (Haug, 2015).  The installation leads to provide appropriate access to the hackers due to which they get access on the sensitive data as well as information without authorization and therefore can utilize that information in wrong intension. This whole scenario is considered as an ethical issue as it harms the law firm whose information as well as data is collected. The organization losses its financial stability and market position due to this occurrence. The financial loss that the organization suffered is quite high (Sulaima et al., 2014). Therefore, it is very much important for the organization to be aware of such kind of issues so that they do not have to confront with such issues that diminishes their business condition as well as financial earning.

6. What can be done about it?

Steps to Prevent Hacking

The ethical issue that generally rises due to hacking of sensitive information as well as data from the organization by installing malware within the organization can be resolved by implementing appropriate strategies that are helpful in resolving the issues (Sulaima et al., 2014).  The government must adopt strict rules as well as regulation so that the problem that is related with hacking can be minimized to some extent. The organization must be aware about the various types of issues that can arise in the organization in order to keep both the data as well as information secure from hacking.

7. What options are there?

There are number of options that can be utilized in order to resolve the issue as well as challenges that are related with hacking. The options include:

Implementation of strict rules and regulation: The government of the organization must implement strict rules as well as regulations so that the problems that generally arise due to hacking can be managed appropriately.

Awareness among the stakeholders of the organization: Proper awareness must be provided to the employees of the organization so that they can manage the problems that are associated with hacking properly without facing much problem (Haug, 2015).

Training of employees: The employees of the organization are generally trained so that they can manage any ethical issue that arises due to hacking appropriately without facing much problem.

Implementation of appropriate applications to provide privacy: The organization must implement proper programs as well as applications that are helpful in providing appropriate authentication, authorization as well as privacy to the important information as well as data of the organization (Egelman et al., 2013). This helps in minimizing the chances of hacking data by unauthorized access.

8. Which option is best – and why?

It is analyzed that implementation of appropriate application within the organization is considered as one of the most appropriate step that is helpful in resolving the issues that is associated with hacking. This is because the application that is implemented helps in providing appropriate security, privacy, authorization as well as authentication so that that any issues or challenges that are associated with hacking can be managed appropriately (Prosek & Holm, 2014).  The chances of hacking due to installing malware or any other unauthorized method can be detected earlier and as a result hacking is impossible due to the presence of such application. All other options are helpful in minimizing the chances of hacking but the implementation of appropriate application within organization also in reducing the chances of occurrence of hacking, which is considered advantageous for the organization.

References

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